So,

Dune.

It's one of those soft sci fi novels I have never really gotten into...and yet have always enjoyed the first novel, just the same.  For me, it's kind of like a Christopher Nolan film...despite it's imperfections, you can tell the author is trying to make something beautiful for you.  Too, as a fan of deserts ( I hate lots of plants, water...AND BUGS ) I have always enjoyed sparse ecosystems.  For various reasons, Dune (only the first book) has always appealed to me as an imaginative experiment.

I am one of the few who appreciated SOME of the things that David Lynch TRIED to do with the 1984 version of Dune.  That being said, he was drawn into the project way too quickly and without enough forethought.  Also, some of the plot devices and other things cooked up for the movie such as heart plugs, the weirding modules, etc. really ruined what could have been a better story.  I think it was the set design and casting IDEAS that I liked. I was always bummed that he was hampered by jumping into Dune too quickly, without a more explicit knowledge of the book, the fans of the Dune universe and by the sheer scope of something that should have been more thought out before being tackled.

Now Denis Villenueve is tackling Dune...and, after seeing and REALLY enjoying Blade Runner 2049 ( a movie that I was COMPLETELY AGAINST being made ) ...I must say I am pretty excited by his two part venture into the Dune Universe.  I didn't like BR 2049 the first time I saw it..but I didn't hate it, either.  After seeing it several more times, I have become a HUGE fan of the movie.  I also enjoyed Sicario ( again, not perfect ) and Arrival.  He works very hard at telling mature, yet enjoyable tales.

I am thinking, if anyone can tell this story and tell it well....it will be Villenueve.  I thank God every day that Ridley Scott won't be involved in this because after Prometheus and Covenant, I wouldn't trust Ridley with making me an In n' Out burger....and you don't know how much that seriously breaks my heart as Ridley has directed some of my most beloved films.  Hell, Ridley Scott is who got me addicted to movies, quite honestly.

Anyhow, is anyone else excited or curious about this?  I am cautiously optimistic about it.

What the fuck is UP with ALL the CAPS?

You writing a screenplay?

When will it be on Netflix?

I have high hopes and have been watching the casting list fill up for months. I rarely watch movies in theaters. I can't decide if I want to watch it in an IMAX or bistro threater.

My Dad read a chapter every night, for bed time stories when I was a kid

I’ve read every book.  Even his kids sequels.  Frank Herbert’s initial book I’ve read three times.

I loved the first movie because even though it wasn’t true to the story, it was my only option.

I was 8 when the movie came out (I had already read the books) and I watched it repeatedly.

It’s such a great story that I’m willing to put up with any attempt to tell it, but I’m really hoping this one nails it.

Your Dad.......

is AWESOME!!!!

The movie was boring as hell.

Looking forward to it and will probably see it in IMAX opening weekend (if offered).

However I'm expecting another beautiful, misunderstood disasterpiece like BR2049. Too hard for the casuals, too soft for the hardcore, and not enough neon colored cotton candy action comedy superheroes for the Chinese.

Never could get into Dune, but Villeneuve makes good shit. If he’s attached, I bet it’ll be awesome.

I WISH!

I have NO ( I repeat NO ) imagination.  I couldn't write a soup commercial.  

This is exactly my secret fear....but if remains true to the quality of his previous work and to the vision of Dune, I'll be happy enough.

I'm convinced that this story is so good it's hard to fuck up. I've loved every screen version.

The 6 hour version of the first one with Sting was awesome. When it was cut to 2ish hours it was only great.

Where can you FIND the long version?  I thought the 6 hour version was urban legend.  Hell, I'd be happy with with a 4 hour version.

If it's Dune 1984 Redux fuck it

If it's SCI-Fi Channel Dune it might be ok.

#1:  It won't be. Villenueve knows how to tell a cohesive story.

#2:  I think he is shooting a 2 part film.  Hopefully each segment is at least 145 minutes.

Alan Smithee's Dune was a masterpiece.  I don't see the point of remaking perfection.

I actually get the reference.  I saw another Alan Smithee move the other night and laughed because I had never paid attention to "his name" before and now I immediately notice it.

I'm stoked.  Fuck yes.  Can't wait for this.  I like Dune so much, I like both originals and the fucking Serbian/Bosnian shit on SyFy with William Hurt.
I'm down for whatever, man!

It's an urban legend perpetrated by those who saw the uncut 3 hour version (the Smithee cut) on a cable network--where it might have been 4-6 hours with commercials.

Regardless...I like both versions.

I don't know why David Lynch Alan Smithee'd Dune. He's made much worse movies. Maybe it was an artistic control issue or something. Or it was early in his career and he was sensitive to critics' reviews of his first mainstream movie?

I had to watch it dozens of times before I started to like it, but I genuinely like it now.

Read all the books more than once.

Hope the movie does it justice.

I think everyone has their own idea of how things and the characters should look so it's going to be difficult.

Will watch it for sure.

I saw November 2020 as a release date, it's going to be a while.

After what he did with BR?

My body is ready.

To be fair... beating the original film adaption won't be hard.

The first 3 books were decent. But by the 4th book it started to just drag on for the sake of dragging on. I couldn’t get through the 5th book.

Absolute shit show, just like BR2049. Hope he gets AIDS and dies, just like him killing BR. DV is a communist and a terrorist, and should not be allowed to make anything. Fuck him, fuck the studio that allowed him to make it, and fuck Ford for even showing up in it. He should have let them CGI'ed his involvement so he could denounce then. Ford should stick to crashing planes, not good movies that he was in 30 years ago-Crystal Skulls? Jesus Fucking tap dancing Christ, just with that someone should have shot him in the Calista Flockhart pussy to put both of them out of our misery. Hope Spielberg dies too, what an asshole infected cockgobling cumdumpster. He and Disney should flagellate each other on pedophilesporn.com fuck them in the ass.

If any of you have ever heard of Alejandro Jodorowsky.....man...his version would have been either horrible as all get out...or one hell of a midnight, acid trip movie.

Orson Welles as Vladimir Harkonnen....

Savlador Dali as the Emperor....

David Carradine as Duke Leto.........

Damn...I am trippin' already.

Somebody got fingered in a  no no place

So...you're saying you might not see it?

Clearly you are.

But yes.

Maybe, will Sting be in it?

IWILLKILLHIM!

I found the first book so compelling that when I read it, it would take me a few seconds to re-orient to my surroundings when I put the book down.

The rest were progressively less interesting, even though I read them as well.

The first movie I found abhorrent on the first viewing, it’s grown on me over the years.

Haven’t watched any of the other stuff( probably should!), looking forward too the next version, hopefully true to the book.

Dune is a fascinating Universe.

No, but he could be one. Who else begins a grammatically correct sentence with "Too," but a writer.

Read all the books (first 6).  Four and five were just "slow" compared to the first three.  I liked the 6th the first time I read it, but the next time it seemed "slow", too.

I've read most, if not all, of the prequels and sequels written by the son and the other guy.  Most are okay, two or three are excellent.

Muad’Dib disagrees

I am sort of amazed that its not going to be a LOTR style 3 part trilogy (the new movies).

I don't know how long it is, but I have both versions on one disk.  The short one on one side, and the long one on the other.  It came in a special metal box.  The long one is much better.  Even the music is different.  I think it was a three part mini-series on TV.  That movie is what got me interested in Sci-fi.

Yup, anyone that's really into Dune needs to watch the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune." That would have been an amazing movie

The guy who did the BR sequel is doing Dune?  Cool.

I liked both the 1984 Dune & the miniseries, but each has it's good and bad.

For example in 84 Dune, they turned the "weirding way" into some freaky audio-gun?  Seriously?  Just to keep the line "My  name is a killing word" ...?  Bleh.  But, they showed how much Paul was thinking too.  And the heart plugs & cat milking was just gross - and I don't remember that crap from the books either.

In the miniseries they dropped the entire internal monologue, and so had to invent interactions to keep some of the important lines.  But they included other details that were lost in the movie - like Gurney's scar, and that the weirding way was really an advanced form of martial arts.

I'm hoping the new one will take the best from both.

And... a couple of ironic points to both previous versions
- both had Jean Luc Picard!  Patrick Stewart as Duncan Idaho in the original, and McAvoy as Leto II (worm boy) in the second.
- and Firefly fans will recognize the Duncan in the second half of the miniseries - Atherton Wing!

Leto II rules all.

I'm with you. I can't. But I did watch it on sci-fi. I believe the opinion of it would be higher if if was available.

But, I still love the 2 hour version. Maybe because I saw it before I read the book.

Don't you mean Professor Xavier?

WELL, YOU'RE A POOPY HEAD!

Very probable. Where can I find the version you reference that includes the scene of the making of the water of life?

I like the cut of your jib.

He sounds like me talking about Prometheus and then interrupting myself to talk about how much worse Covenant was than that!!!!!!!!!!

I can appreciate that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got done with it.

LOL....when Jodorowsky says "I raped him!  I raped Frank Herbert!" I just about lost it!

I started thinking, "HOLY SHIT!  An honest movie director!!!!"

The version with Sting in it is fun to watch because fuckin' Sting is in it, regardless of just about anything else.

And it's always fun to tell people to look up the actress that played Alia.   Heh.

Did not much care for the Dune novels that came out after Herbert died, at least in comparison to the original 6; they read a bit too much like outlines.   Not poorly done, just too different stylistically.

There are things about 1984 Dune that were well done, for the time.   But there was a lot about that movie that was so bad that they ruined the movie for most true appreciators of the books.

If the six hour version of that movie actually exists I'd want to watch it because MAYBE that extra depth could make it just that much less of a dumpster fire.

Negatives:   The casting of Harkonnen, the "chronically sick" attributes given to him,  the heartplugs, the sadistic debauchery/utter insanity demonstrated by him in the movie,  the "squeeze a rat" drinks (properly called "squood"), everything about the casting and acting of Beast Rabban,    pretty much every single thing related to the casting, acting, and storytelling about all House Harkonnen,   and outside that...the weirding modules.  Which was not weird, it was BIZARRE.

The movie opted for "grotesque" when "unsettling" was the better mark to aim for.

The book was too deep to ever be squeezed into two or even three hours in any way that could do it justice.

But Lynch did really try to capture the book's message in a densely packed information overload blast of bizarre cinematography.  I do credit him for TRYING.

It was just too rushed. Too much time was spent on simple scenes that were not difficult to read or comprehend,  while the scenes that really drove the story were judged insufficiently interesting to spend any measurable screen time on.

When you read the book, from the time that Paul and Jessica fled to the time that Paul became the de facto leader of the Fremen and organized them as his army seemed to take days.  And it SHOULD feel like that.   In the movie it was more along the lines of "Take a concession stand and pee break now and you'll miss it".

As for this new attempt to do Dune right, I wish him luck.  He'll need it.  And a very patient touch.

I actually think Peter Jackson would be able to do Dune movies right.   His work on the LOTR trilogy stands as a best in class example of adapting an epic story to the big screen for the viewing by audiences with limited patience.    Jackson's work was mostly a faithful reading of the books with a few judicious edits made for time.  Some elements were cut out that were not strictly necessary to the advancement of the story.

It's not like you really NEEDED the Tom Bombadil sub-story very much to move the story along,  and yes, though it was a fun read,  editing most of the Ent story line out was also required to bring the movie in at a reasonable length.

What's interesting too is he shopped his graphic story boards around Hollywood and a lot of his shots in the story boards ended up in other sci fi/action/fantasy movies.

When you consider the source, the line between grotesque and bizarre is very thin. Having known a couple of Hollywood types you being concerned about the line being crossed is not surprising at all. To them it was probably quite tame.